Employer Mandated Wellness Programs: Discrimination Issues and Other Claims in the Workplace
Why Attend?
The program will provide cutting-edge and practical advice for attorneys, human resource professionals and employees on working and practicing in a complex world. The series Planning Chairs/Moderators also provide a summary of recent employment law developments in the final 30 minutes, including any regulatory developments and groundbreaking opinions. As an interactive seminar, the program affords the opportunity to submit questions for faculty discussion in advance of and during the event.
What You Will Learn
As healthcare costs continue to escalate with no abatement in sight, employers have begun to seek new tools to deal with those runaway costs. Among the tools being used and discussed are wellness plans. Some have incentives and some have penalties connected with maintaining a healthy or unhealthy lifestyle or working on potentially problematic conditions.
“As a condition of your employment, you will exercise, live healthy or pay more for insurance or else . . . look elsewhere.”
Are those the words that are now a routine part of the workplace issue debate? According to the National Law Journal, employers are increasingly mandating that employees have healthy lifestyles, or face repercussions.
Aristotle once stated, “All things in moderation.” While very few people would say that there is an issue with maintaining and wanting to have a healthy lifestyle, is there legally required moderation on how wellness programs may be implemented? Do employees’ exercise or smoking habits have a direct bearing on their job performances? Can employers base health premiums on wellness plan participation?
Will these emerging developments in the workplace lead to an increase in lifestyle discrimination, class discrimination and privacy law claims?
In this teleseminar our co-chairs and guest speakers will discuss the legal ramifications of Employer mandated Wellness Programs and the impact they will have on discrimination and other legal claims arising in the workplace.
Topics to be discussed include:
• How will exercise performance be measured?
• If exercise is required within the workplace, will this be a part of an employee’s annual review?
• How is an individual with a disability treated under programs providing benefits to those who exercise?
• Can the lack of a healthy lifestyle properly prevent one from “climbing the corporate ladder?”
• Will the lack of a healthy lifestyle prevent one from even being allowed on the corporate ladder?
• Can an employer mandate that employees complete a health questionnaire to either participate in the health plan or pay the lowest co-pay?
• How much of a financial incentive can an employer offer to employees to participate in a wellness plan without creating problems under ERISA or with EEOC?
Planning Chairs
Robert B. Fitzpatrick Robert B. Fitzpatrick, PLLC, Washington, D.C.
Frank C. Morris, Jr., Epstein, Becker & Green, P.C., Washington, D.C.
Faculty
Anne Ciesla Bancroft, Fox Rothschild LLP, Lawrenceville, NJ
Lewis L. Maltby, President, The National Workrights Institute, Princeton, NJ
Susan Relland, Miller & Chevalier, Washington, DC
Total 60-minute hours of instruction: 2.0; Total 50-minute hours: 2.4
Suggested Prerequisite: Limited experience in legal practice in subject matter.
Educational Objective: Development of proficiency in performance of intricate and complex legal tasks within a narrow area; provision of information on recent legal developments; maintenance of professional competence as a practitioner.
Level of Instruction: Intermediate
Times
Eastern 12 noon - 2 pm
Central 11 am – 1 pm
Mountain 10 am – 12 noon
Pacific & Arizona 9 am – 11 am
Alaska 8 am – 10 am
Hawaii 6 am – 8 am
